On the 2nd Day of Christmas...

...this blog gave to thee...

...two fancy stamps...

...and a Cathedral made of seeds.

Okay, so just before Christmas an idea popped into my head about how to wrap presents this year. I know it's sad but every year I get incredibly excited about working out a pretty way to decorate the Christmas presents without spending a lot of money on printed wrapping paper and instead using brown paper and a bit of ingenuity. So this year I decided to make stamps, which is a post in itself, so I will leave that until later.

Anyway, I looked all over the net for idea and inspiration and my intended post was to show you the beautiful stamps by Nula Shearing of Noolibird Stamps, which are beautifully intricate designs which remind me of Rob Ryan's paper cuts. However, I stumbled back across the work of Betsabee Romero, who recycles old car tyres to create her piece: Always finding another cage, 2010, a continuous rolling stamp designs on wire mesh.

In her home country of Mexico, Romero adorns these reclaimed tyres with hand carved patterns inspired by the native birds of various countries. However the retreading of these tyres is incredibly symbolic, as they have been used to the point where horrific accidents are caused because the original treads have been worn into non-existence.

So not only are the an impressive piece of design, they are also poignant. Check your tyres, especially at this time of year when it's either very wet, snowy or icy. It's so easy to not notice and end up getting hurt. Last week my sister and I were driving home from Christmas Shopping (Christmas Tree in the boot of the car) and an alarm went off which neither of us recognised - proceed with panic on my part, though I was having one of those days so I think I can be forgiven. We had a big slit in one of ours tyres between treads and another tyre which needed replaced as the tread was worn. All I can say is thank god for run flats!

Link | Philagrafika 2010 - Betsabee Romero

Merry Christmas! Part three tomorrow...
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Listening: O Holy Night - The Whiffenpoofs (courtesy of The West Wing)